In the meantime Congress had passed acts to raise provisional forces for the Confederate States, to authorize the President to borrow $15,000,000 at 8 per cent interest for the sup port of the government, to levy an export duty on each pound of cotton exported after 1 August and to organize the Post-Office De partment. Courts were rapidly organized in the different States, but, as we shall see, the Confederate States never possessed a Supreme Court. The President was then authorized to receive from the various States such forts, arsenals and other public establishments with their contents as they had taken possession of within their respective limits. The request of the President to this effect met with prompt compliance on the part of the States. With the hope of obtaining recognition from foreign governments, commissioners were sent to European countries, but they were unsuccess ful in their missions. England, France and other countries in the summer of 1861 acknowl edged the belligerency of the Confederate States, but beyond this action they refused to go. A recognition of the independence of the new Confederacy would have been regarded by the United States as an act of hostility. In November 1861 J. M. Mason and John Sli dell were sent as special commissioners to Eng land and France respectively. After leaving Havana the English vessel in which they had taken passage was overhauled by the San Jacinto of the American navy, and these com missioners were forcibly removed. England demanded their restoration. The United States government at first hesitated, raising a hope in the Confederacy that war might ensue be tween the two countries. Finally, however, Lincoln said: "We fought England about this matter in 1812; we must give up these men." Accordingly the commissioners were placed on board an English vessel and allowed to con tinue their voyage. On the 8th of August the Confederate Congress, to please foreign powers, had adopted all the provisions of the famous Declaration of Paris, except as to the use of privateers.
The provisional government of the Confed eracy had hardly been in force two months be fore it came into conflict with the United States government. The occasion of this conflict was the demand of the Confederate authorities that Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor should be surrendered by the Union force that occupied it. Senator Douglas, though .opposed to secession, had argued in the United States Senate that South Carolina was entitled to the possession of Fort Sumter; General Scott had advised its evacuation; and Secretary Seward had prac tically promised that it should be given up. The South, therefore, thought that a peaceable solu tion was in sight. But President Lincoln, after a period of indecision, decided to provision the fort, and on 8 April 1861 so informed the governor of South Carolina. The South had not desired hostilities; but the Confederate govern ment thought it necessary to capture the fort and opened fire on it 12 April. This act pre cipitated war. The Confederate States, there fore, have generally been made to bear the odium of beginning hostilities. The question is debatable; for as Hallam says: "The aggressor in a war is not the first who uses •force, but the first who renders force necessary." We are thus thrown back upon the question raised by Sen ator Douglas, which cannot be discussed here. The bombardment of Sumter stirred the North as by an electric shock. When on 15 April Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers "to sup press combinations obstructing the execution of laws in seven of the Southern States," the free States rallied to his support. His determination, however, to coerce the Confederate States per suaded four of the border States, which had hitherto held aloof, to join the Confederacy. Arkansas seceded 6 May; North Carolina 20 May; Virginia 23 May, and Tennessee 18 June. Kentucky, Missouri, Maryland and Delaware having refused to secede, no more accessions were to come to the South. West Virginia, moreover, with a population of 250,000, detached itself from Virginia and remained loyal to the Union. The population of the Confederacy was
about 9,000,000, of whom three and a half millions were slaves; while that of the Union States was approximately 22,000,000, an im mense disparity of numbers. "Yet," said J. F. Rhodes, "had the North known that the people of the cotton States were practically unanimous, it might have refused to undertake the seem ingly unachievable task; for while hardly a man in the North assented to the constitutional right of secession, all acknowledged the right of revolution. . . . Many would have objected to combating that right." The provisional Con gress, being called together 29 April in Mont gomery to consider the new condition of affairs, made provision for the prosecution of the war by adopting financial and military measures. On 6 May it passed an act, declaring that negotiations with the United States for a peaceable solution of difficulties had failed,• and as Mr. Lincoln had called for 75,000 men to capture forts within the jurisdiction of and belonging to the Confederate States of Amer ica, and had issued another proclamation an nouncing his intention to set on foot a blockade of the Confederate ports; and ((whereas by the acts and means aforesaid war exists between the Confederate States and the government of the United States, and the States and territories thereof, excepting the States of Maryland, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Arkansas, Missouri, and Delaware, and the territories of Arizona, New Mexico, and the Indian Territory, south of Kansas; therefore the president is au thorized to use the whole land and naval force of the Confederate States to meet the war thus commenced and to issue letters of marque under the seal of the Confederate States against the vessels of the United States." It was further provided in accordance with the Declaration of Paris (q.v.) that property of the enemy (except contraband of war) on board a neutral ves sel should not be subject to seizure. In re sponse to this declaration of existing war, a hundred applications for letters of marque were received from privateers, and troops crowded to the support of the new government with the same alacrity as in the North. On 21 May Congress adjourned to meet 20 July in Rich mond, Va., now chosen as the permanent capital of the Confederate States. On 6 November an election was held under the permanent Consti tution for President and Vice-President. As there was no opposition to Davis and Stephens they were unanimously elected President and Vice-President respectively by the electoral votes of the 11 Confederate States. They were to enter upon their office 22 Feb. 1862, and to hold office for six years. Under the provisional government the President had appointed as members of his Cabinet Robert Toombs of Georgia, Secretary of State; C. G. Memminger of South Carolina, Secretary of the Treasury; L. P. Walker of Alabama, Secretary of War; John H. Reagan of Texas, Postmaster-General, and J. P. Benjamin of Louisiana, Attorney General. At the close of 1861 J. P. Benjamin had become Secretary of War; S. R. Mallory of Florida, secretary of the Navy; ex-Gov. Thomas Bragg of North Carolina Attorney General, and R. M. T. Hunter of Vir ginia had been appointed Secretary of State, vice Toombs, resigned. As the war went on, changes were made in the Cabinet as follows: On the resignation of Mr. Hunter, Mr. Ben jamin in 1862 held for a time the portfolios of State and of War, until Geo. W. Randolph of Virginia was made Secretary of War. In the same year Mr. Randolph resigned and was suc ceeded by James A. Seddon of Virginia. Mr. Seddon resigned in the early part of 1865 and was succeeded by Maj.-Gen. John C. Breck enridge of Kentucky. In 1864 Mr. G. A. Trenholm succeeded Mr. Memminger as Secre tary of the Treasury. Attorney-General Bragg was succeeded by Thos. H. Watts and subse quently by George Davis of North Carolina.